Friday, November 3, 2017

November 03, 2017 - Going in deep.

Yesterday was dominated by condense in the morning and grizzle and rain in the afternoon.
No climbing possible!
This morning started with a dense fog, but the sun broke through and the fog dissipated quickly.
Everything was still wet when I parked at the buvette of Apremont and the place still looked empty, waiting for the crowd to arrive.
The crowd may come, because I was going in deep, to Apremont Fond des Gorges.
It had been a long time ago since I went there last time, but I remembered that some boulders were drying quickly.

The roof with "Strate Eau Sphère" was indeed lying mostly in the sun and was already as good as dry.
I started with trying "Féérite", but the big hold on the left was still too humid to hold the swing on, so I turned to "Strate Eau Sphère".

First I tried the easier direct version to see if the topout would be even possible i these still quite humid conditions.
That didn't turn out to be a problem, as I flashed it with relative ease.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Fond des Gorges - Strate Eau Sphère (direct) 7A




The longer original version however, required quite some more attempts.
Maybe, or probably, it was due to the unfavourable conditions, but this felt quite hard and closer to 7B+ to me.
I had to go deep for this one, but I say it again, the conditions play a big role.
Nevertheless, a very nice line that I enjoyed climbing!

Fontainebleau - Apremont Fond des Gorges - Strate Eau Sphère 7B(7B+)




I wanted more, but first something easier, which I found in "Chicken Noris (assis)" on the boulder just before the roof of "Strate Eau Sphère".
Even though it felt more like a short traverse, the movements were very nice to do.
Took me only a couple of tries to find a working sequence and top out.
This boulder dries very quickly!

Fontainebleau - Apremont Fond des Gorges - Chicken Noris (assis) 7A




On the way back to the car, I wanted to pass by Apremont Haut des Gorges to try "Aplats en Folie", knowing that it faces South and might be dry by now.

When I arrived, it looked only dry-ish, but the start and the first slopers felt good enough to go for it anyway.
I took my time to work out the start, perfected some movements and installed the camera when I felt that I could be able to reach the top crimpy slopers.
The first time I was able to reach the first crimpy sloper near the top, I could feel that it was wet there though and a couple of times I fell off the last move.
The only way that I was able to top out, was by taking the crimpy sloper only as a crimp, pull on my fingernails and hope that I wouldn't slip off.

It did feel hard and I had to go deep, but not it wasn't as hard as I would expect from a real 7C on slopers, especially in these conditions.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Haut des Gorges - Aplats en Folie 7C(7B+)


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